Emerging Technology Brief NUR 514 Emerging Technology Brief

Emerging Technology Brief NUR 514 Emerging Technology Brief

Modern health care is highly patient-centered and relies heavily on technology to enhance patient outcomes.  To respond to patient issues as deserved and predict illness patterns, health care providers need to store and secure the available data. As a result, the use of sophisticated and emerging technologies in health care is on the rise. As reviewed in this brief, cloud computing is among the emerging technologies with profound impacts on health practice.

Technology Overview and Purpose

A health care cloud represents a computing service that health care providers use to store, maintain, and back up health information. If differently stated, cloud computing has much to do with delivering computer services such as databases, networking, analytics, servers, and storage over the internet. Concerning the purpose of cloud computing, Gao et al. (2018) described cloud computing as a technology for optimizing data storage, management, and processing remotely instead of using typical servers. Democratization of data is more convenient through cloud computing, and the transition of artificial intelligence into mainstream health care processes is also easier through cloud computing.

How Cloud Computing Would Function in a Health Care Setting and Issues

In health care settings, cloud computing offers an avenue for managing and analyzing data. At a time when health care organizations deal with volumes of electrical health records and big data analytics, cloud computing enables health care organizations to store patient data as they avoid costly storage associated with physical servers. Dang et al. (2019) further mentioned that cloud computing is critical in boosting cooperation between health care providers to optimize patient care. Accordingly, its use would lead to a scenario where health care providers collaborate and work in teams as they share essential patient data conveniently. Despite these benefits, cloud computing is associated with legal issues. The security of patient data is a genuine concern as far as cloud computing is concerned (Smys & Raj, 2019). There is a widespread worry about having apps and patient data in third-party servers, considering that health care organizations should comply with regulations related to data portability and security, such as the US’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).